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1.4A large container used in a technical or manufacturing process for subjecting a material to heat or a mechanical or chemical process.

‘He walked drunkenly over the cabinet on the wall and picked up a pan used for grouping chemicals used in various experiments.’

‘In this method brine is boiled and agitated in huge tanks called vacuum pans.’

‘A common way to produce salt from brine is by evaporating the water using vacuum pans.’

‘The resulting pans are rough-tuned before heating and fine-tuned after the firing process.’

‘For at least eight centuries, Prestonpans was home to industrial works where massive shallow pans were suspended over fire pits to boil sea water, creating salt used both to flavour food and preserve fish.’

‘The brine was evaporated or ‘walled’ in large, shallow lead pans, positioned over wood or coal fires, until a salt-rich sludge was formed.’

1.5A steel drum.

‘To manufacture these pans, hundreds of thousands of hammer strikes were executed upon these drums.’

‘Her father was a steel pan tuner and her mother an accomplished violinist from the Royal Academy of Music.’

‘‘Cello pans’ are played in sets of three or four; triple cello pans are tuned in diminished chords, and four-pan cellos in augmented chords.’

‘Steel pan music is unique in both sound and your own personal perception of each individual song.’

‘Not their skills, but if they get a good drum, a better pan will result.’

‘In a steelband, the melodies are played on a tenor pan, which can play a complete low pitch scale.’

‘This should be done when the soil is as dry as possible, and aims to break through any pre-existing hard pans and to open up the subsoil to facilitate rapid and deep penetration of the vine roots.’

‘‘We know what the strata of the soil is, but localised areas can hit hard pans,’ he said.’

4US informal A person's face.

Phrases

go down the pan

informal Fail utterly:

‘the company went down the pan last year’

‘She said: ‘I had tried so hard to train her, but I was losing so much business and my reputation was going down the pan.’’

‘Mind you if it was my product going down the pan, I'd be kicking up a fuss too.’

‘I thought how sad it was to watch him let a perfectly good business go down the pan.’

‘I'd been pretty bright at school, then suddenly I started going down the pan.’

‘The company will be going down the pan in the near future.’

‘They are happy to spend bucket loads of cash on legal advice and consultants while one of the most important events in the district's calendar goes down the pan.’

‘When you cut frontline staff the services go down the pan.’

‘Now that the grants system has, for the most part gone down the pan, students have to fund themselves by borrowing money.’

‘But six centuries of history went down the pan when council officers forgot to fill out the necessary forms to remain a city.’

‘His father was much older, an overweight, shopkeeper whose career was swiftly going down the pan, along with his marriage.’

Phrasal Verbs

pan out

1End up; conclude:

‘he's happy with the way the deal panned out’

‘If it all pans out great, they'll really be able to crow.’

‘It turns out to be a trap and the typical scenario pans out like this.’

‘It'll be interesting to see how this one pans out.’

‘The work will start again, and all being well it should be completed on schedule but we are waiting to see how the week pans out.’

‘Green, speaking to the Sunday Herald last night, said: ‘We'll just have to wait to see how it pans out this week.’’

‘We are concerned about their level of training and powers they have been given, but we will have to wait and see how it pans out.’

‘Anyway, we'll see how it pans out and who he chooses.’

‘How that pans out, though, that's going to be a mystery.’

‘If the rest of the year pans out in the same way as the first seven months, his forecasts will be out by £11 bn to £12 bn, putting the golden rule in jeopardy however the Treasury chooses to calculate it.’

‘I think it's going to depend very much on how the global economy pans out.’

‘But new demonstrations are called for today; we'll see how that pans out.’

‘Anyway, we'll see how all that pans out in March.’

‘Before that, the game will pan out the way it pans out,’ he said.’

‘We'll follow the legislation and how it pans out.’

‘Well, to be honest, I would wait to see how the whole inquest pans out before judging anyone on that issue, including the driver and the photographers.’

‘It will be interesting to see how the role pans out.’

‘I am interested in following how it all pans out for us.’

‘I shall see how it pans out and what I shall write in the near future.’

‘We're biding our time to see how the radio consolidation game pans out.’